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"What is the best slogan for my plumbing business?" It is something we are asked a lot. But you need to be careful when using slogans to promote your plumbing business. Here are five reasons why:

1. DON'T CONFUSE SLOGANS WITH HEADLINES

A slogan (tagline or strapline) is something that appears at the bottom or the end of an advertisement. Often you will see it next to the business logo. However some plumbing businesses use their 'slogan' as the only message in outdoor advertisements, or on work vehicles, or even in print. This can be a huge mistake. If the first thing you think about when considering an advertising campaign is what slogan to use, you would be better asking what headline you should use. Headlines are much more important for selling your plumbing services - and a whole new topic. Think about the first thing you say, more people will see it.

2. SLOGANS ARE FOR CAMPAIGNS

When you see slogans being used effectively, it is normally because they tie a much larger and on-going campaign together. Often this involves TV and radio advertising. However most plumbing businesses don't use campaigns on this scale, nor do they advertise extensively on television. This can mean that in a print advertisement, such as the Yellow Pages, they are basically wasting some of the space they have paid for. Concentrate on the rest of the ad instead.

3. BE SPECIFIC WITH ANY SLOGAN

This doesn't apply just to plumbers, it's a problem for many businesses. They choose slogans that are meaningless, interchangeable, and basically hopeless. If one of the supposed benefits of a slogan is to help people remember the name of your business, then how can it help if dozens of businesses share the same slogan? And the problem is, they do:

"The best in plumbing!" "Number 1 in plumbing!" etc., etc.

Some offenders don't even mention what they do:

"Helping you" "We help"

These are all hopeless. They won't sell your plumbing services. Instead any slogan you use should offer a benefit for your customers in a distinctive way.

4. DON'T BE 'CLEVER' OR FUNNY WITH ANY SLOGAN

Trying to be clever or funny is the fastest route anyone can take to a dreadful slogan. And a bad slogan can actually cost you money. Here are several reasons why 'clever' or funny slogans are usually terrible:

(a) The slogan doesn't actually end up clever or funny. And nothing is worse than appearing stupid or actively unfunny.

(b) Your prospective customers are interested in plumbing - they are going to choose a trustworthy, competent plumber over a clown any day.

(c) You only have a few words to make your impact. When you are using the same words to try to be clever or funny this can often take precedence over the actual sales message.

5. THINK ABOUT HOW THE SLOGAN WILL ACTUALLY MAKE YOU MONEY

If you have an existing slogan or are thinking of using one, then you should think very hard about how the slogan will make you money. If you are in any doubt about it, it is probably a safer bet not to use a slogan at all.

A great slogan should help differentiate you from your competition, offer some kind of benefit to your customers, and help make your plumbing business more memorable. These are obvious ways in which it can help customers to choose you - anything else might just be a waste of valuable advertising space.

Situations where you could reasonably consider using a great slogan include:

(a) You already have a recognizable slogan, and have used it for more five years. If a large number of existing customers and potential customers already recognise your slogan (ask them) then obviously don't ditch it. But do think about its prominence in your advertising - there may be more effective ways of selling your plumbing services with the same media space;

and / or

(b) You are a dominant business in your market of choice. If you have already established yourself as a dominant position then you may be better able to engage in 'brand marketing' with an effective slogan.

and / or

(c) You are running a large cross-media advertising campaign with a view to achieving market dominance. If such a market position is anticipated, and expect to run similar campaigns over a long period of time then it would be understandable that you think ahead about how you tie them together.

and / or

(d) You are marketing in media where there are few contraints on space and time. Provided that it is a decent slogan then it will do no harm if you are using it in media like a mailout and on your website, where additional space is a much cheaper commodity.

Plumbermarketing.com can help your plumbing business sell your services, from contractors, to industrial enterprises, to trade products and supplies. You can email us here, or you can call us in the US, UK, Australia, Canada or New Zealand. Call us any time of day: our phone numbers are here.

PLUMBING SLOGANS | SLOGAN FOR PLUMBING COMPANY

We welcome all gasfitters, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning)contractors and related trades and firms to plumbermarketing.com!

Depending on where you are in the world, the scope of 'plumbing' changes - so we would like to make clear that we welcome gasfitters, HVAC contractors and related trades into the plumbing family!

Of course, at the more industrial and engineering end of the spectrum the distinction can become even more blurred - major contracts require firms to provide complete development solutions. What is interesting about these trades is not what distinguishes them, so much as the shared nature of the problems they solve.

From a business perspective, this means that the marketing strategies that underpin good practice for an industrial plumber, or a supply product, work well with gasfitting and HVAC marketing too. If there is one major difference, it is that at a residential level gasfitting and HVAC can be more seasonal. Homeowners don't worry so much if their central heating doesn't work in summer, but fret about their air-conditioning, and vice versa. Spring and autumn can be underpinned by hot water systems.

GASFITTING AND HVAC MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

What this means is that there can be huge opportunities to TARGET your marketing with this in mind. You know that there is at least one part of the year where you are run off your feet (heating in winter, cooling in summer) - so you need to target your marketing to cope with these different periods of feast and famine.

1. FEAST: This is often the time when you barely have to try to get work - it can just flood in. The problem is that it can be difficult to control, and some jobs are big, some jobs are small. The idea at this time of year is to target your marketing for the really big jobs - the huge profit spinners. If you market yourself without targeting this, you can end up overwhelmed with requests you can't really satisfy and you don't really want. So in a sense you limit your marketing push to the work that really pays - and you give yourself a huge advantage for getting those jobs (over those just marketing in a general sense). This is one of the reasons why it can pay to diversify your marketing efforts away from Yellow Pages - where the one ad has to work for the whole year. Add new marketing streams - like online marketing and direct marketing (by mail).

2. FAMINE: These are the times when work is thin on the ground. Of course the good parts of the year more than compensate for it, otherwise you wouldn't stay in business, but a lot of the overheads are continuous - vehicle fleets, wages, liability insurance. And most valuable of all - time is being wasted: time when you are not being paid. Often, perversely, this is when many businesses take their foot off the marketing pedal - they stop advertising and pushing for work because they know they get less back for each ad. Instead they need to modify their marketing for this time of the year - not necessarily spending more, but not slashing spending either. Once businesses realise that, yes, the return on their marketing investment will be different at this time of year it can liberate them to advertise more aggressively. When your competitors take their foot off the pedal, and you put yours down, who is going to win the race? Yes, the cost of acquiring sales can be higher at this time of year - but that is in the nature of the seasons and weather conditions. The important point is that profit versus no-profit is a no-brainer. Keep pushing.

Plumbermarketing.com can help your gasfitting or HVAC business, from contractors, to industrial enterprises, to trade products and supplies. You can email us here, or you can call us in the US, UK, Australia, Canada or New Zealand. Call us any time of day! Our phone numbers are here.

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We're a niche advertising agency, working to sell plumbing services and products on three continents every working day, year in year out. Email or call us to ask about our credentials and how we already helped plumbing businesses just like yours.Our job is to work to earn YOU money!